Alphabet Inc. $GOOGL Shares Sold by Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC

Key Points

• Ridgecrest Wealth Partners cut its Alphabet stake by 37.3% in Q4, selling 26,533 shares and leaving it with 44,634 shares worth about $13.97 million, which represents roughly 7.6% of the firm's portfolio and its second-largest holding.
• Insider selling included CEO Sundar Pichai offloading 32,500 shares for about $10.01 million (a 1.94% reduction), and insiders have sold roughly 2,037,294 shares worth $94.2 million in the past 90 days while still owning 11.64% of the company.
• Alphabet recently reported an earnings beat (Q4 EPS $2.82 vs. $2.57 estimate; revenue $113.83B vs. $111.24B), announced a $0.21 quarterly dividend, and faces positive near-term catalysts from new AI chips, enterprise AI products and multiple analyst target upgrades.

Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC decreased its holdings in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Free Report) by 37.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 44,634 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 26,533 shares during the quarter. Alphabet accounts for about 7.6% of Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. Ridgecrest Wealth Partners LLC's holdings in Alphabet were worth $13,970,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Members Trust Co raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 6,434 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,014,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Lifelong Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Alphabet by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Lifelong Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,728 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $541,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. White Wing Wealth Management raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. White Wing Wealth Management now owns 1,155 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $362,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Alphabet by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Quantum Financial Advisors LLC now owns 11,799 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,693,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MRA Advisory Group raised its stake in Alphabet by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. MRA Advisory Group now owns 1,310 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $410,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.89, for a total transaction of $10,006,425.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,642,060 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $505,573,853.40. The trade was a 1.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O'toole sold 617 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.63, for a total transaction of $178,701.71. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 10,093 shares in the company, valued at $2,923,235.59. This trade represents a 5.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 2,037,294 shares of company stock worth $94,216,897 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.64% of the company's stock.

Alphabet Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of Alphabet stock opened at $339.32 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.10 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The firm's 50 day moving average is $307.93 and its 200 day moving average is $303.68. Alphabet Inc. has a 1 year low of $147.84 and a 1 year high of $349.00.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.81% and a return on equity of 35.01%. Equities research analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 11.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 9th were issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Alphabet's payout ratio is 7.77%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GOOGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $375.00 target price (up from $330.00) on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $395.00 to $387.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $305.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Alphabet from $365.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-six have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $369.67.

Trending Headlines about Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet unveiled two new custom AI chips — a TPU 8t for training and a TPU 8i for inference — positioned to lower cloud AI costs and compete with Nvidia on infrastructure. This supports cloud margin expansion and hardware/service revenue upside. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Google launched the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform to build and deploy agentic AI for businesses — a strategic product aimed at monetizing generative AI across large enterprises and driving Google Cloud adoption. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Google Cloud committed a $750 million partner fund to accelerate agentic AI adoption among consulting, SI and software partners — an investment that can speed customer deployments and lift services revenue. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Merck announced a multiyear partnership, investing up to $1 billion in Google Cloud to deploy AI across R&D, manufacturing and commercial operations — a material enterprise win that validates Google’s enterprise AI stack. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Product integrations expand monetization vectors: major Workspace AI updates (drafting/Sheets automation) and Chrome “auto browse” enterprise features embed Gemini into user workflows, increasing stickiness and upsell potential. Article Title Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analyst updates raised targets (BMO to $410; Cantor Fitzgerald and KeyCorp also raised targets), reflecting increased sell-side conviction about Alphabet’s AI/cash-flow upside. That analyst momentum often amplifies positive price reaction. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Ecosystem and security partners (Exabeam, Vodafone, Thinking Machines Lab expansion) showed integrations and vendor deals that ease enterprise adoption but are longer‑term revenue drivers rather than immediate catalysts. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Offsetting items: a small insider sell note was reported, which prompted modest near-term selling pressure for some investors. Insider moves can weigh on sentiment even as fundamentals improve. Article Title

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc is the holding company created in 2015 to organize Google and a portfolio of businesses developing technologies beyond Google's core internet services. Its principal operations are led by Google, which builds and operates consumer-facing products such as Google Search, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Workspace, as well as advertising platforms (Google Ads and AdSense) that historically generate the majority of its revenue. Google also develops consumer hardware (Pixel phones, Nest smart-home devices, Chromecast) and developer and distribution platforms such as Google Play.

Beyond Google's consumer and advertising businesses, Alphabet invests in enterprise and infrastructure offerings through Google Cloud, which provides cloud computing, data analytics and productivity services to businesses and institutions.

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